Introduction to Literature Review
You must have seen the international headline like “the Adani Group loses over $100 billion”.
Do you know why? The answer is – Hindenburg Report. The Hindenburg Report is basically a type of Literature Review of various economic policies, agreements and investment details of the Adani Groups.
Let’s Start a Research Journey……..
‘Outline of Literature Review’ or ‘Literature Review Outline’ is one of the basic questions you will find on the internet if you search ‘literature review’. Actually, it is a difference in the word’s arrangement only. The answer to these questions seeks the same basic aspect of research.
Research is never ending journey. Neither any topic nor any concept is researched completely. No one can say that everything is known about a particular topic. Research is question-led. For finding a question one has to start by reviewing the relevant literature.
In this way, literature review is the beginning jump into the sea of research. Without diving deep into it, one cannot be a seasoned scholar.
From the data creation point of view, there are three types of data: – works of researchers, works of scholars and works of practitioners. A research scholar, first of all, should know what set of data is needed before starting literature review. One should be fixed about what type of data he is looking for.
Literature review is research in itself. It researches itself. Choosing a topic is the first step in its commencement. The topic should be focused and research-question-led. Literature review will be interesting if the selected topic is based on personal experience, benefits for the audience and field, of the scholar’s intellectual interest.
What is Literature Review
Each and every field of research needs literature review for its development. It is an indispensable part of the research. Literature review about a policy or technique can help us to know how scientifically and economically sound and useful the policy or technique is. It is done by highlighting the pros and cons of the methods used, and policy implemented. On the basis of such review, the government bodies or organizations make decisions about whether the money invested in these methods, policies or techniques is wise and useful.
It helps in knowing about the nature of the problems raised as well as its dimensions seeped into other fields. The work’s standpoint depends on discipline as well as the issue that was chosen.
Literature Meaning
In earlier times, it is considered that only published work is literature. Owing to a major source of study available in the printed form, it is termed ‘literature’. But, at present time, its dimensions are expanded tremendously due to the information explosion. Anything related to a topic is ‘literature’ for the topic. It may be printed works, audio materials, videos, movies, serials, pictures, posters, paintings, sketches, physical sites etc.
The meaning of literature depends on the nature of the field. It varies vastly from field to field.
Review Meaning
The word ‘review’ consists of two words – ‘re’ and ‘view’ – which mean ‘view again’ or ‘visit again’. The purpose of viewing literature again is to know about the status of the development of a topic or concept or theory. The purpose of the review differs according to the nature of the study.
Literature Review Meaning
A scholar is already known to the field in which he has chosen the topic. Conducting a literature review is visiting once again to look into the previous research works to know about what has been done, to what extent it has been accurately done, what has not been done, what has been done incompletely, and what needs improvement. These are the basic objectives. Simply, its meaning is ‘visiting the relevant literature again’.
10 Importance of Literature Review
It is helpful in:
- Knowing the weaknesses of the previous research work
- Knowing the strongness of the previous research work
- Assessing the quality of the earlier works
- Policy assessment
- Selection of a Better alternative policy
- Gives the opportunity to scholars to learn the needed skills
- Knowing about the research scholars of a discipline
- Knowing the area of controversies
- Knowing the soundness of the conclusion
It plays a key role in decision-making in the fields like health, education, science, funding, market strategies etc.
What is Purpose of Literature Review
Analysing the magnitude of harmfulness, benefits, futuristic plans, the scope of implementation etc. are its basic purposes.
Since research is a multidimensional field. Each field has its own purpose and audience.
It is done to know the status of the development of a particular field from a particular aspect. It focuses on what is known till now. All collected data is analysed from this point of view. The prime purpose is to shed light on the research gap in order to promote further research in this field. It is also done to take a decision like a review in the field of policy, health etc. The review done from this aspect focuses on the efficiency of the methods or medicines or techniques used.
In the conclusion, such a review paper suggests a better alternative or conditions for the continuation of a certain project, when to start a new project etc. in order to a substantive change.
Purpose of Literature Review
- Analyse the work whether it enriches the subject understanding
- To relate your topic from within and outside topics
- To know about the works related to your topic’s various aspects
- How previous works have identified, defined and correlated the other topics
- To know whether the previous works addressed the research gap effectively
- Identify Research Gap
- To make crystal clear the research gap for future research
- Whether conflicts have been solved or not
- Identifying the Relevant Data
- To know relevant literature, authors, milestone works, basic theories, concepts, controversies
- Evaluating previous works
- Synthesise concepts
- Selection of relevant concepts and theories
- Give a roadmap for further research
- Accelerate further research
7 Steps in Conducting a Literature Review
- Make a list of researchable research questions
- Delimit the area of study
- Make a priority list of keywords and key phrases of your topic
- Make a list of authentic databases related to your study
- Note down prominent theories, concepts, and authors’ name
- Note down areas of controversies in your field
- Find a research gap
Literature Review Tips
Literature Review Tips and Tricks may vary according to the nature of the research problem. So, these are some basic tips that may be used.
Tips are:
Literature Review Tips and Tricks
- Clarification of Terminology
- Well refined Research Questions
- Explain the criteria for Inclusion and Exclusion
- Be skilled in Statics
- Clear and concise in writing
- Literature review should be guided by the Research question.
- It should be under the purview of purposes
- Its standards should be according to the audience
- Analyse the weakness of the methods used
- Have the chosen concepts identified well?
- Have the chosen concepts defined well?
- Make a list of unsolved controversies
- Analyse the epistemological aspect
- Analise the ontological aspect
- Narrow the area of the topic to be clear and concise in the review
- Narrow the topic to a particular concept or theory
- Don’t use acronyms as a keyword
- Free from selection bias
- Free from publication bias
- Use of summary of book discussion
- Develop skills needed for the collection of data
- Develop skills needed for the interpretation of data
- Sophisticated planning
- Time management
- Take Experience experts’ guideline
What are the Benefits of Reading Literature Review
It is the first explored area of the research. It is ‘basic skill development training’. Lots of skills are harnessed during the course of conducting it step by step diligently and systematically. In this way, it is a ‘special research field’. The ongoing exploration of this field confirms what has been answered and what has not been answered.
It is an opportunity to learn about various techniques and concepts used by several learned scholars. It is a golden chance to find out the weakness in the procedure used by the scholars and think about a better solution.
Some scholars believe that literature review is for only those fields where tons of literature is available. But there is no literature, it is only confirmed after a thorough literature review of the previous research works. It needs critical thinking for weighing the validity of the theories used.
Literature review is a process of knowing about writers and developing the skills to be a prolific writer.
Highlighting the weakness of methods used, policy implemented, or drugs supplied is the way to ferment an environment for further research.
Another very important aspect is that the literature review finds out whether previous research results are valid till now or not.
In the field of Policymaking, a review paper tells which policy is better and which policy could give the best outcome.
Conducting a literature review is an ongoing learning process. It is an activity that is a ‘comprehension buster’. Scholars come across various standpoints and views of scholars of a particular topic. Penetrating the theories and concepts in order to either refute or ditch them needs serious thinking, study and rigorous analysis.
Literature Review Benefits
During literature review, a scholar learns:
- How to paraphrase
- How to cite properly in different styles
- How to extract theories used
- How to identify the field of controversies
- How to evaluate the conclusion
- How to evaluate the soundness of future suggestions
How Do You Find the Best Sources for Literature Review
It is the topic and scope that determine where one can find the best literature.
Find an article that is most relevant to your research topic. Go to the reference page. Here you can find a list of relevant articles closely related to your topic.
One may consult the experts, peers and guides to know the best sources related to the chosen topic.
These are Some Major Databases for all Sorts of Literature Review
- Google Scholar
- PubMed
- JSTOR
- ScienceDirect
- Epustakalaya for Hindi works
- ShodhGanga for Indian Thesis
- Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute for Classical Indian Literature
How do I Find Relevant Literature
It also depends on the nature, scope and area of study.
One could use the advanced search features of the above-given databases by using keywords and a combination of keywords and key phrases.
A reference list of research papers and a bibliography of cited books are also used to find the relevant data.
Process of Literature Review
The first step is to identify the works directly related to the selected research work. Then it is tern of the selection of the research work done. Then synthesise the collected works. At this level, a scholar evaluates oneself what he knows and what he does not know about the methods used. On the other hand, he also knows which methods are not used. And finally, the noted matters are summarized.
Each research is done to achieve certain objectives by following certain methods. In the literature review, we evaluate all the works done by scholars using the chosen objectives by the scholar as a parameter.
Types of Literature Review
1. Systematic Literature Review
2. Critical Literature Review
3. Meta-Analysis Literature Review
4. Integrative Literature Review
5. Scoping Literature Review
6. Umbrella Literature Review
7. Narrative Literature Review
Literature Review in the Field of Research
The importance of literature review in the field of research is as much as a foundation of a building. There are no academic or scientific fields without a literature review. In the field of research, it is of great importance and a crucial part of:
1. Thesis
2. Dissertation
3. Research Paper
4. Review Paper
5. Research Proposal
6. Synopsis
7. Book Proposal
Challenges in the Literature Review
- Inclusion and exclusion criteria
- Finding the right keywords to dig deep into the database
- Making the right combination of the keywords
- Selecting the right coding methods for data
- Finding out the same result work with different titles
- Finding out the different works with the same titles
- Finding out relevant data from millions of results
- Finding out the weaknesses of the methodology used
- Finding out the weaknesses of the theories used
- Finding out the strongness of the conclusion
- Putting the findings in a logical and correlated way
- Abiding by the journals publishing rules
- Presenting one’s findings in a directed way
- Selecting the right journals to publish
- Managing time constraints
- Measure the achievement of the purpose
Why Literature Review?
It is the AI age. There is an explosion of information. More than a million articles are published every day through various journals, blogs, news articles, books etc. In this situation, it is very hard to keep track of all developments. To be up to date and to be familiar with all the relevant data is a very basic essentiality of research. So, there is a need to be skilled to locate the relevant data first, then collect, then evaluate and using them.
The tools used in academics are being upgraded at an unprecedented pace. So, we need to employ these tools in the literature review to manage information overload. The efforts in this field help you in acquiring all skills required for your field. It will pay you throughout your academic career in writing, evaluating, critiquing and publication. This is also the basic purpose of the literature review.
Literature review helps a scholar to be clear about what aspect of the chosen topic is going to be addressed in the journey of research. It also clears up which theories are being used, targeted to improve or refute.
Characteristics of Literature Review
1. Foundation for advancing theory
2. Foundation for refuting a theory
3. Foundation for creating a new theory
4. Finds the research gap
5. Explains the weakness and robustness of relevant theories
6. Clarity in explanation of the terminology used
Why Be Systematic in Literature Review
Clarity
Clarity in communication about finding is paramount. It helps in understanding step by step easily and helps in interpreting the findings’ weaknesses and robustness. The clarity in the research questions, objectives and research methodology will help to reach the scientific scholar community very fast. The clarity in inclusion and exclusion criteria helps to understand and evaluate the work.
Concise
It helps in spreading the finding effectively. To be pinpointed are the demanding characteristics in the scientific world.
Validity
It should be free from bias in the selection of data and bias-free from using methods.
Auditability
It helps in being firm in front of counterattacks from scholars to disprove it. The systematic review will help in being sound at every step.
Literature Review Books
Booth, A., Sutton, A., & Papaioannou, D. (2016). Systematic Approaches to a Successful Literature Review. SAGE.
Fink, A. (2019). Conducting Research Literature Reviews: From the Internet to Paper. SAGE Publications.
Gough, D., Oliver, S., & Thomas, J. (2017). An Introduction to Systematic Reviews. SAGE.
Hart, C. (2001). Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Research Imagination. SAGE.
Heyvaert, M., Hannes, K., & Onghena, P. (2016). Using Mixed Methods Research Synthesis for Literature Reviews: The Mixed Methods Research Synthesis Approach. SAGE Publications.
Onwuegbuzie, A. J., & Frels, R. (2016b). Seven Steps to a Comprehensive Literature Review: A Multimodal and Cultural Approach. SAGE.
Ridley, D. (2012). The Literature Review: A Step-by-Step Guide for Students. SAGE.
Jesson, J. (2011). Doing Your Literature Review: Traditional and Systematic Techniques. SAGE.
Kiteley, R., & Stogdon, C. (2013). Literature Reviews in Social Work. SAGE.
Thomas, R. (2019). Turn Your Literature Review Into An Argument: Little Quick Fix. SAGE.
